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Bottega Louie! Why haven’t I visited you before?!?

We visit downtown L.A. from time to time, usually for shopping and getting supplies such as fabric, beads, and other things for my sisters online etsy store. And man ALL THESE YEARS we have never went to this restaurant!! It’s about 5 mins away from the fabric district on 7th and Grand, and truthfully there was a lot of hype on yelp but I avoided reading it, just to get a personal interpretation of it. The biggest excitement for me was the portobello fries, and the french macarons/pastry section.

The interior definitely gets top marks. They have very beautiful trimmed ceilings, leather chairs, and you can even see the pizza guy put your pizza in the oven. Overall it’s very luxurious, and it does make it seem that you would pay a fortune for the meal but Bottega is honestly REALLY REASONABLE! The menu has a dish for anyone’s budget. Also the service was great! Our waiter was the sweetest guy ever. We loved this garlic ailoi sauce with the Portobello fries and he gave us another. We felt very well taken care of. (I need to take you here Alex!!)

. Bread & butter given at the beginning

I mean it’s really how proper bread should be made, but it had a really hard crust. The middle was perfect though, spongy with consistent flavor. Not at all doughy or poorly made, but hey it was complementary.

Latte

This latte is very good. And I’ve tried A LOT of lattes.

The espresso was not at all bitter, it had a very smooth taste. The height of the foam and the thickness of it was perfect. The latte was also at a perfect temperature, and they also give you a large amount. The foam art was ehh, but you can’t really judge it by that. Def worth a try if your into coffee.

Portobello fries!! This is how all fries should be!

Flat out: it’s 9 dollars.

It’s a bit overpriced, but I believe the richness compensates for the amount given. However, it’s good for about two people though. The batter, mann the batter. You would expect it to be greasy, but it’s not at all greasy. The batter felt light and had a fair amount of flavor, the best part was they cut thick slices of the mushroom. Make sure to get the aioli sauce.

Trenné $12

I got the Trenné. It had perfect flavor. It reminded me of a rich beef stew with the bits of rib eye, but the main character of the dish was the sauce and the pasta. Don’t get this dish if you want a lot of meat. At first the pasta looked kind of like french fries but it complemented it well. It took up the sauce differently then would normal pasta, and it created this very interesting texture to the pasta. There was strong flavor and I would go back for this anytime.

Fettuccine Belmondo $10

Fettuccine Belmondo is the dish my sister ordered. A little disappointing. Just because when you compare the both, the dishes are on completely different tangents. It was very simplistic. Not too much sauce, truthfully a little too plain for my taste. We found if you add just a bit of salt it brings out a lot more flavor. Very healthy though.

Pink Salt!

Very good salt! It might just be the color (hehee)

Patisseries!!

I bought the Macarons (small box $9), and the Crème brûlée (about $3ish)

Open Macaron box

Bite!!

The patisseries are all the same, it’s all a bit overpriced. I was kind of taken back when I couldn’t choose what flavors I wanted but it was okay… The macarons did not have definite flavors. Unlike Paulette Macarons where you can really taste the guava, or the lavendar, Bottega Louie macarons were very well made and had really great colors but it didn’t have sharp flavors.. The Crème brûlée was very citrusy, not bad for the price, and it was a great one to try, but I wish I had tried a tart or something.

I feel like Bottega is going to be tradition whenever we visit downtown L.A, even if parking is difficult and the wait is long with a huge crowd (fortunately we went on a weekday around 3 so we didn’t wait at all). I just really want to try more dishes and see if they’re as good as the Trenné.